Poetry of Witness

Poetry of Witness attempts to reveal humanity through the art of words. Poetry of witness is also a form of documentary poetry that allows for a limited understanding, and sometimes transcendence of human tragedy. In a sense all poems are poems of witness: they record what it’s like to be alive, record what has passed, what is passing. They bear witness to the imagination, the capacity for human invention; they witness our ability to wonder. A poem of witness looks out from the self, towards the world, its social, political, and historical aspects. It witnesses other people’s lives.